Proven Hack to Nail Target Audience
Press publish and pray for views? Not if you nail target audience with this hack.
Getting views doesn’t have to be a guessing game if you know whom you're creating content for. Here are 9 steps to create a persona and nail your target audience.
Why is nailing target audience important?
Defining your target audience can make or break your success.Your content won't reach the right target group if you haven't done your homework. Even worse, putting out too generic content might repel audience and cost you views that you'll never get back.
Why? Because people won't feel the connection nor get the value they're looking for. And they won't come back to that same place, twice. If something should work for everything, it works for nothing.
There is no silver bullet that fits all. But this content creation hack is your way out. Let's get it straight: we're talking about your audience persona.
That's why you need to narrow down your audience and understand whom you want to target with your message.
Audience is also one of the key components to achieve content-market fit. You can read more about how this content creation shortcut will take you to more views and visibility. If you achieve that, you're in the Goldilocks zone, creating content in the most efficient way.Create a persona to nail target audience
Your persona is the ideal audience member you want to target. You can have multiple personas, but you need at least one. Ask yourself this about your audience.
#1 step to nail target audience: demographics
Start with the basics. Is your audience male or female? How old are they? What's their family status? What's their income?All that plays into how you can relate to your audience. Your language and messaging is completely different when your audience is 20 vs 60 years old. Younger audiences prefer a fast pace, quick delivery, shorter formats, whereas older audiences tend to take more time to delve into your content.
#2 step to nail target audience: business specifics
Write down what is your target market by countries. Which industry or sector and business category does your target audience represent? For example, they can be in the e-commerce sector, but are they a manufacturer or just a reseller?
What is the size of their business - both team and revenue-wise. Do they work at a small or large company? How much revenue are they generating yearly?
What's their budget - how much is your target audience willing or able to spend in your category?
#3 step to nail target audience: job & tasks
What is your persona's profession or job title?What are the main tasks on their hands? In which daily tasks are they're looking for extra help? These jobs can be either of these three:
- functional - tasks that get them from A to B;
- social - impressing friends and colleagues, tasks that result in team or community feedback;
- emotional - solving these tasks will result in feeling better,
gain peace of mind.
#4 step
to nail target audience: schedule
What does their daily schedule look like? Do you target office vs remote workers with a more flexible schedule? Based on previous, what's their time zone? When will they read or watch your content?That tells a lot about your publishing time - whether to aim for weekdays or weekends; mornings or evenings.
#5 step to nail target audience: competition
Who are your main competitors? What other brands has your target audience most likely heard of when choosing a solution to their problem? Which brands they already interact with or admire?#6 step
to nail target audience: pains
What 's the main pain point your audience is facing in their tasks? What's their dissatisfaction, the barrier to getting what they want? What are the challenges and risks they need to overcome to succeed?
#7 step to nail target audience: gains
Define the gains and rewards your target audience hopes to achieve, once they solve their tasks and overcome the pains. What does success look like? How are they looking to maximise these positive results?#8 step to nail target audience: channels
Where does your audience interact with your content? Is it online channels? If yes, which ones? Do they connect with you in some offline channels? List all the contact points these interactions occur to realise how much emphasis should you put on offline vs online mediums.#9 step to nail target audience: aspirations & interests
What are their goals in life, what they desire? What drives them emotionally?What are the interests, lifestyle, and tastes of your target audience? That’s a brilliant clue to what other information to cover in your content to hook the audience. Whatever they can relate to better makes it easier to get in touch.
How does nailing target audience work in practice?
Previous questions will help you understand what and whose problem you are solving. They're helpful in defining your messages, value proposition, content style, tone of voice, channels, formats, publishing schedule, etc.Let’s go through an example together. Say you’re providing accounting software. Your persona could be:
Lucy, age: 60. Based out of London, UK. An experienced accountant, 9-5 home office worker in a large corporation. Looking to be the best at their job by being precise, never missing a deadline, and making sure the numbers add up every month. Detailed, intricate reports are her thing. Loves books and gardening. Consumes mostly offline channels.
Mark, age: 21. Located in Bali, Indonesia. A solopreneur, a young digital nomad. Working hours: chaos. Looking for a flexible and simple solution to manage finances and support him in building his own brand. Into extreme sports. Active in online channels, mostly social media.
Did you see that? These people have completely different background and expectations. That's why you need to analyse your target market and figure out your brand positioning and value proposition to nail target audience. Serving everyone is never a good idea. If something is meant for everything, it works for nothing.
If you’re making content for people like you, that can also be a great starting point. Do some self-analysis and create a persona based on that.
You can use my detailed persona template to hit it off. I hope it helps you nail target audience. Check it out and let me know how get on!
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